Friday saw the conclusion of the annual British Soccer Camp at Old Post Park. The camps began Monday and throughout the week there were plenty of opportunities for campers to learn and practice soccer fundamentals and sportsmanship, but most of all to have fun.

“It’s a fun camp,” said Theresa Magill, the local camp coordinator. “I call it an energizer camp. It gets the kids ready for the Arkansas Valley Soccer Association (ASVA) league play in the fall.”

The AVSA has supported the camp for the last 12 years.

The British Soccer Camp is conducted by Challenger Sports, which brings in British coaches from overseas to teach the fundamentals of soccer to kids 3-15 years of age. Challenger Sports is the largest soccer camp operator in the U.S. and Canada and has been in operation for 26 years.

The coaches stay with volunteer host families throughout the week.

“They become like surrogate families,” Magill said. “They feed them, help them get around, and do their laundry.”

“We’re trying our best to grow the sport,” said Tom Holmes, camp director from the U.K. “To do so, we have to start from the bottom. We start with children. We want kids’ first experiences with soccer to be positive.”

“It creates a memory of soccer being one of the most fun things they did as a child,” Magill said. “When the parents ask them if they want to play soccer the next year, they will answer yes. It creates a joy for the game.”

Holmes said they strive to teach the kids more than just the fundamentals of soccer.

“We teach the children to have a positive attitude in this game and to carry that into their everyday lives,” he pointed out.

Each day, the kids were taught a “word of the day” and encouraged and taught how to practice it — words like respect, integrity, leadership, sportsmanship and responsibility.

“Each day we would talk about these core principles,” Magill said. “We talked about how they translated to the soccer field as well as off the field in their regular lives.”

In addition to learning about soccer, the kids were taught about culture. When they arrived, they were divided into teams that represented various teams in the World Cup

“Culture is important in soccer,” Holmes said. “We encouraged them to learn about their team’s culture, whether that be by reading a book, looking it up online, or asking a parent.”

“We have them do different things to represent their team,” Magill said. “We have a crazy hair day, a draw your coach day. The kids even got to make their own sports drink, and make their coaches try them. To cap it all off, they had to design their own flag and display it on the last day.”

During the camp, the kids played each other often. They played in small teams, about three to five players on each team on a smaller field. Magill said the small teams and field help the kids develop their individual skills.

“It’s a lot harder to play on a smaller field. The kids get a lot more touches on the ball,” she added.

The camp saw considerable growth from last year, with more than 70 participants this year, compared to last year’s 40.